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South African Equities – What lies beneath

In this live-recorded webinar STANLIB’s Head of Absolute Returns, Marius Oberholzer, and Senior Portfolio Manager, Warren Buhai, shared their SA equity thesis, while considering the market shifts in 2020 and within the construct of the recent equity market bounce.

Picture of Marius Oberholzer

Marius Oberholzer

Head of Absolute Return Franchise

Picture of Warren Buhai

Warren Buhai

Senior Portfolio Manager

Key takeouts 
  • Equity markets have struggled to deliver returns since the Global Financial Crisis, other than in the US. From a global investors’ perspective investing in the SA market, we are back to where we were 15 years ago. Why is the US doing so well? It comes down to six tech stocks.
  • SA’s currency performance has a significant impact on equity market performance, similar to other emerging markets. In South Africa, the depreciating rand has supported equity market growth for the last nine years and provided multi-national exposure.
  • Commodity performance is another equity market performance driver, which is benefitting the SA resource sector. This may differ for precious metals, which typically perform when investors are looking to protect wealth.
  • SA company shares, also referred to as SA Inc, are showing weak earnings growth. South Africa is faced with structural problems as well as fiscal problems which hamper growth. This in turn has an impact on cost of capital which impacts valuations.

 

More insights

Marius Oberholzer
Marius Oberholzer
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Marius Oberholzer is the Head of Multi-Asset at STANLIB Asset Management. He and his team manage assets across absolute return, multi-strategy, and hedge fund mandates. They design, deploy, and risk-manage assets globally, using qualitative and quantitative techniques and utilizing passive, active, listed, and unlisted assets to deliver the required client outcomes.

Before joining STANLIB Asset Management, Marius gained global investment experience in London and Hong Kong, trading and managing TT International Hedge Fund’s products. He combined direct investment strategies with bottom-up and top-down macro insights across the firm’s Hedge and Long-Only investment offerings. Upon returning to SA, he engaged in corporate finance activities, private market deals, and structuring before joining STANLIB Asset Management as Co-Head of Absolute Returns. He assumed sole leadership of the franchise in 2015, expanding the team and its capabilities to their current level.

At STANLIB Asset Management, Marius leads the Multi-Asset team, chairs Asset Allocation meetings, and is a member of Investment Exco. He is also the licensed Key Individual for STANLIB Asset Management’s Hedge Fund business. Marius has represented STANLIB Asset Management’s infrastructure investments as a non-executive director and served on the board of a listed Fintech special purpose acquisition company.

Marius holds a BCom (Economics and Commercial Law) from the University of Stellenbosch and an MSc (Global Finance) from the Stern School of Business at New York University and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He also holds the IMC UK investment qualification.